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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986989">No More Awkward Silences</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenieLacy/pseuds/QueenieLacy'>QueenieLacy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anxiety, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Discussions, Family Feels, Gen, M/M, Misunderstandings, Nervousness, Talking about sexuality</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:54:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,029</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986989</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenieLacy/pseuds/QueenieLacy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You gonna ride with your boyfriend”</p><p>Carlos decides that he needs to have a talk with his parents about their silence over his sexuality, because there can’t be any miscommunication when no one is communicating at all.</p><p>Rated T for swear words</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andrea Reyes &amp; Carlos Reyes (9-1-1 Lone Star), Carlos Reyes &amp; Carlos Reyes' Family (9-1-1 Lone Star), Carlos Reyes &amp; Gabriel Reyes (9-1-1 Lone Star), Carlos Reyes/TK Strand</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>465</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No More Awkward Silences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I’m really glad we got that feel good moment between Carlos and his dad at the end of episode 8, but I really hope that isn’t it as far as Carlos and his family dealing with his sexuality. I hope the writers have more in store because there definitely needs to be some discussions between Carlos and his parents. This is just my take on one of those possible conversations.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Carlos let out a deep breath as he parked his car in front of his parents’ home. He checked his phone one last time, drawing out the inevitable, to see if TK had called or sent him a text while he was driving. He hadn’t, which meant his love was still asleep. It had only been three days since TK was kidnapped by the bank robbers, and he was still recovering from his head wound. TK was currently sleeping through most of the pain, since he refused all pain medication, which Carlos selfishly encouraged because he couldn’t stand to see his lover in pain. Although it was boring, he would happily watch TK sleep if it meant that his lover could be pain free in those moments. Carlos was also still technically suspended, but his captain assured him this was just a formality. He would be back to work pretty soon and Carlos was grateful for that because all of this free time was giving him too much time to think. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You gonna ride with your boyfriend?</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The words his father uttered echoed loudly in his head. At that moment, he didn’t have time to really process what had just happened. His singular focus was on TK and getting into that ambulance to ride with him to the hospital. It wasn’t until later that night while he watched whatever was on the hospital TV and held TK as he slept that it hit him. His parents knew...They knew without him even telling them. They knew despite Carlos introducing TK as his friend. He had so many questions and he wasn’t sure if his parents would have any of the answers, but he needed to ask them. He couldn’t be silent anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos pocketed his phone and keys as he exited his car. He slowly walked up to the front door, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. He wanted to laugh at himself. He wasn’t afraid to run into a restaurant where armed robbers were hiding out without his service weapon, but a conversation was about to bring him to his knees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos finally reached the door and knocked. He heard shuffling almost immediately and the sound of the lock click. The door swung open to reveal his father staring back at him. “Carlos!” The older man exclaimed. “This is a nice surprise.” He reached out to hug his son.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos leaned forward to meet his father halfway. “Yeah, sorry about showing up unannounced.” Carlos apologized. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t apologize. You know you can come here anytime, mijo. This is your home too.” Carlos watched as his father turned his head to look past him, as if he was looking for something. Carlos turned his head to see what his father was looking at but was met with nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you looking at?” Carlos questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, nothing...I just thought you might have TK with you, is all.” Gabriel said before motioning Carlos into the house. Carlos chuckled and rubbed the back of his head as he walked inside. He honestly didn’t know how to feel about the fact that his father was just expecting him to bring TK around now, that he would go from never bring a guy home to TK practically living at their house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, he’s still recovering.” Carlos explained. “Where’s mami?” He asked and Gabriel motioned for him to follow. The two men walked down the hall into the living room where Andrea was watching one of her favorite telenovelas, and his father’s favorite too but Gabriel would never admit to watching soap operas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look at who decided to visit us.” Gabriel announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Carlos, my baby!” Andrea jumped up from the couch and moved to hug and kiss her son. Carlos smiled as he hugged his mother back. Her embrace was as warm as ever and he was glad he no longer had to worry about losing it. “You hungry, dear? I can heat you something up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, mami. I ate already. Um…” Carlos cleared his throat and exhaled loudly as he looked between his parents. “Do you have time to talk?” He had to just blurt it out otherwise he might never work up the nerve to ask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure, what’s this about?” Andrea said and went to sit next to Gabriel on the couch while Carlos flopped down onto the chair his dad normally sat in. He turned to look at them and took in another deep breath for courage. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You can do this Carlos. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s about TK an-.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is he okay? Your dad told me he got hurt at one of your scenes.” Andrea interrupted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought his head injury wasn’t that serious. Did something change?” Gabriel quickly followed up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s not...he’s fine.” Carlos chuckled. Their concern was nice. “I’m talking about the other day at the farmers market.” Carlos quickly got the conversation back on track before his parents went down another tangent. “Dad said you both knew about me and TK being...more than friends...I guess, I just...how?” That wasn’t exactly what he planned out in his head. Carlos was hoping to be more eloquent, but it seemed his parents didn’t have a problem understanding him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, mijo, we saw you and TK long before you two ran into us.” Gabriel answered and Carlos’ jaw fell open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You ran into us on purpose.” Carlos realized. If his parents were watching them in the market, they could have continued to avoid them. Instead, they chose to make themselves known. “You wanted me to introduce you to TK.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You two looked so happy together.” Andrea started, smiling as she thought back to that day. “The way you looked at him and how he would sway into you when you two walked around-.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you were with him, early in the morning, at a farmers market. A Texas Ranger doesn’t need any more clues.” Gabriel added with a smug grin, but soon yelped in pain when Andrea hit his arm. “Ow, What? It’s the truth!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos couldn’t help but smile at the interaction between his parents, but quickly moved onto his next question of sorts. “And when I said TK was my friend…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We just assumed you weren’t comfortable with telling us that he was your boyfriend.” Andrea answered. “And we didn’t know if maybe TK wanted to keep things quiet and you were just respecting his decision, or maybe it wasn’t as serious as we thought.” She answered honestly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos looked at both of his parents, blinking slowly as his mother’s words sank in deep. They thought he was uncomfortable. They thought TK wanted to keep things between them quiet. Carlos couldn’t help the laugh that stumbled from his lips. It wasn’t a true ‘oh, that was hilarious’ laugh. It was a ‘what the fuck’ laugh. The kind of laugh that came after a sudden realization.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“After the farmers market incident.” Carlos finally said after he stopped laughing. “TK and I got in a fight, a big one, because I introduced him as my friend.” Carlos chuckled. “I told him I did that because I didn’t want to make you two uncomfortable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Carlos…” Andrea gasped as she could see where this was going. She felt Gabriel clutch her knee, indicating that he also knew what was about to happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I actually said I didn’t want to rub your noses in it.” Carlos scoffed at the memory. “I...TK stormed out. He left and at that moment, I didn’t know if he would come back to me. I could have lost him, the love of my life, because I was too afraid of making you uncomfortable and losing you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mijo, you could never lose us.” Gabriel interjected.</span>
</p><p><span>“How was I supposed to know that!” Carlos exclaimed as he jumped up from the chair to pace around the living room. He hadn’t meant to yell, never wanting to be disrespectful to his parents, but he was just so frustrated with the whole situation. </span>“I came out. I told you I was gay and just...nothing. I figured it would take a few days, maybe even a few weeks, for you to wrap your heads around it but years went by and you never said anything. It was never acknowledged. You didn’t ask me if I had a boyfriend or if I was interested in anyone. You didn’t annoyingly meddle in my love life like all other parents do.” </p><p>Carlos stopped pacing to look at his parents. His eyes beginning to glaze over with tears. “I would have even taken a negative reaction from you two. Yeah, it would have hurt like hell but...at least I would have known how you felt. I wouldn’t have had to walk on eggshells around you. I wouldn’t have been in this weird limbo of not knowing if my parents love me unconditionally or if they would drop me the moment they became too uncomfortable-.”</p><p>
  <span>“Carlos, baby.” Andrea stood from the couch and walked over to her son. She stood in front of him </span>
  <span>and took his hands in hers. Gabriel quickly followed his wife and moved to stand next to her. “We’re so sorry. We never meant to put you in this position or make you feel like we don’t love you unconditionally because we do.” Andrea raised one hand to cup Carlos’ cheek. “You are our baby. We’re always going to love you. No matter what.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m so sorry Carlos.” Gabriel placed his hand on his shoulder. “We come from a time and a culture where this isn’t talked about. We didn’t know how to talk to you about it and we didn’t want to make you feel weird. Instead of learning how to discuss it, we just thought it would be better to stay silent and let you come to us. We never thought that you were waiting on us to open up to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A single tear betrayed Carlos and slipped from his eye. He reached up and quickly wiped it away but his parents had already seen it. “Come here.” Gabriel grabbed Carlos and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Andrea wrapped her arms around Carlos’ middle and hugged him tight. Carlos knew there were more conversations to be had and more healing that needed to be done but for the first time since he was seventeen, he finally felt seen by his parents and that was freeing.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Carlos quietly walked into his house, careful not to disturb TK who he figured was still sleeping. He balanced the plates of food his mom had given him as he locked the door behind himself and then toed off his shoes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos whipped his head around to see TK sitting on the couch with a blanket draped over him. “You’re not supposed to do the stairs by yourself.” He frowned as he walked toward TK.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not dizzy anymore. That was only on the first day.” TK explained as Carlos came closer. “Oh, food! Where did you get this from? It smells fantastic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“From my mom.” Carlos chuckled as he put the food down onto the table. He then left to get forks for them. “She said all of it will help you heal faster.” He explained as he walked back over to TK. He sat next to him and handed him a fork. Before Carlos could move to unpack the dishes, TK cupped his cheek and forced Carlos to look at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are we talking about why your eyes are puffy and </span>
  <span>red or do you need time?” TK questioned and Carlos smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I had a talk with my parents.” Carlos explained. “And it went well.” TK smiled and leaned over to kiss Carlos on the cheek. “Although…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Although?” TK pulled back to see the worry on Carlos’ face but was met with a grin instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They were really disappointed that I showed up without you.” Carlos chuckled. “Dad was even looking for you to get out of the car when I pulled up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>TK laughed and shook his head. “Well, next time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Carlos nodded, happy to know there would indeed be another time. “Yeah, Next time.”</span>
</p>
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